Students gather at Rafael Film Center for environmental forum

HUNDREDS OF students from Marin and across the Bay Area descended on the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center Monday for the start of a two-day conference on environmentalism, highlighted by the screening of several movies on the subject.

The California Film Institute's fifth annual Environmental Youth Forum kicked off Monday and will continue Tuesday. Almost 1,200 students will have participated in the forum by the time it ends.

"Right now we are studying ecology and it's critical to look at what efforts are being made to save our environment," said Nate MacDonald, who teaches math and science to sixth-graders at White Hill Middle School in Fairfax. "We felt to keep the students on the cutting edge, and not just stuck in the textbook, it was important to have them here."

This is the first year the forum is including grade schools. They had their own day of programming on Monday and were greeted by an inflatable great white shark that measured more than 23 feet long. It was set up in the center's lobby in conjunction with the first screening of the day, the "Shark Riddle," a humorous and educational look into the world of the species.

Other Marin schools participating in the forum include: Glenwood, Sun Valley and Vallecito elementary schools in San Rafael, Willow Creek Academy and Bayside in Sausalito and Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo. Schools from San Francisco, Oakland, Sebastopol, Richmond and Pinole are also participating.

Among the films that are to be shown: "Chasing Ice," "Cane Toads: The Conquest," "Watershed," "Fierce Green Fire," "Last Call At The Oasis," "Rebels With A Cause," "The Eyes Of Thailand," "WindFall" and "The New Environmentalists."

Marin filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto, James Redford and Marin producer Windy Borman are scheduled to be part of the forum, along with environmental groups.

"There is a lack of attention on environmental films, in particular for younger people," said John Morrison, educational director for the California Film Institute which owns the film center. Morrison coordinated the event forum.

"We have a whole interactive program where we have films and speakers," he said, noting many of the films were locally produced. "There is such a richness of filmmakers here."